MacRo Report Blog

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Top 9 MacRo Report Blog Posts of 2017

Commercial real estate market statistics, local politics, awards and business tips were the topics that interested our readers this past year.

The MacRo Report Blog has now been settled into the world wide web for eight years, and it seems that there is always a number of timely topics that seize the attention of our fan base.

Election Fever

This year was an election year for the residents of the City of Frederick, and as usual there was a lot of buzz around Mayor Randy McClement’s bid for a third term, but even more so over which Democratic candidate would grab the chance in the primary to challenge the incumbent. At the end of the day, the question was easily answered with Frederick’s newest Mayor Michael O’Connor being sworn in last month. Our posts gave you our insight on who is Michael O’Connor and how did he win?

The River Runs Through It

Without question the post that garnered the most hits in 2017 was entitled, The Monocacy River Plan: An Essay on How to Go Forward. Property owners in both Frederick and Carroll counties whose land borders the Monocacy River wanted their voices to be heard this year regarding serious concerns they had over a two-county plan to manage, protect and conserve the natural beauty of the river. Many of these folks felt that their property rights were being threatened.

We wrote about this topic in January of last year, hoping the River Board and the respective county governments would see the flaws in the plan. In the closing quarter of the 2017, after a lot of contention, the property owners scored a few points, but they still feel the threat of Big Brother. We’ll be looking to provide our readers with an update in the coming months.

To Good to Be True

Throughout each year the MacRo team offers up any number of business tips to property owners. This year our post entitled, Landowner Beware: When a Developer Offers You a Joint Venture, really piqued the interest of many. We offered up a true story of how the MacRo team worked with a farmer to avert him from entering into a one-sided deal that could have caused him to lose his land.

Market Statistics and Trends

The MacRo Report Blog has become well known for providing our readers with regular reports of land and commercial real estate sales, as well as leasing statistics and trends in the various sectors of the Frederick County market–retail, multifamily, industrial, mixed use and office, to name a few.

This year two of our posts made the Must-Read list. Noticeable vacancy rate reductions in long plagued office leasing made a great topic for All Signs Point To Frederick County As Poised For Continued Growth. Other articles aroused the curiosity bug in many when we wrote about the incredibly large transactions that closed in 2017.

We try to take advantage of every opportunity to share the insights we glean from top professionals, especially when they offer up economic forecasts for Maryland and even more so for Frederick County. This year the one that drew much attention came courtesy of the local legal office of Miles & Stockbridge, which in its Annual December Breakfast Briefing, hosted the renowned Anirban Basu.

Rocky Mackintosh, President, MacRo, Ltd., a Land and Commercial Real Estate firm based in Frederick, Maryland. He has been an active member of the Frederick, Maryland community for over four decades. He has served as chairman of the board of Frederick Memorial Hospital and as a member of the Frederick County Charter Board from 2010 to 2012. He currently serves as chairman of the board of Frederick Mutual Insurance Company. Established in 1843, it is one of the longest enduring businesses in Frederick County.